Scarecrow Boy
by Quill of Molliemon
Summary: AU, crossover, pre-Naruto, one-shot, falls between "Gone Fishin'" and "Shiny Demon". Kakashi encounters a trainer he feels will help him advance, but then...he meets HER. Read, review, and enjoy!


**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto or Pokémon. If I did, I'd have a lot of money…but I don't. So don't bother suing, you won't get anything out of it.

**Notes:** (Crossover, could be a crack!fic if you want) Here there be Naruto characters and Pokémon monsters! This is a _one-shot_ which falls between "Gone Fishin'" and "Shiny Demon".

Kakashi – 11

Minato – 17

Kushina – 16

I hope that you enjoy it!

* * *

**Scarecrow Boy**

Kakashi Hatake walked along the forest trail, alone except for his snubbull, Pakkun. He had been an official pokémon trainer for nearly two weeks and was seeking out his first opportunity to earn a gym badge. Most young trainers desired gym badges for bragging rights or entry into high-level battle tournaments, but Kakashi had another goal firmly in mind.

His father, Sakumo Hatake, known as the "White Fang" in his glory days, had once overseen the gym of Shinobi Town. Once a year, his father would go off and compete in an invitation-only tournament, and would place well if he didn't win it all. To Kakashi, there was no greater pokémon trainer in the world. Not even the Champion of Fire Country could hold a candle to the genius and talent of his father.

But when he turned five years old, everything had started to fall apart. First, his mother died suddenly from undiagnosed cancer. Then, when his father had competed in the tournament that year, he'd been knocked out in the second round in a humiliating defeat. After that, his dad started to take comfort in alcohol and his bond with his monsters deteriorated. By Kakashi's eighth birthday, his father had lost the gym and vanished off into the wilds, abandoning his son with an old aunt. Aside from the occasional postcard, he hadn't heard from his father since.

Now that Kakashi was old enough to be a licensed trainer, his dream was to acquire the six badges necessary to get qualified as a gym leader and then re-open his father's gym. And the sooner he accomplished this goal, the better. His father's collapse had left a stain on the Hatake name in Shinobi Town and Kakashi needed to fix it to end the whispers and pitying looks he received for being that man's son.

Once proud of his strong resemblance to his handsome father, Kakashi was now ashamed of his face. To avoid that attention in other town's from bitter fans of the "White Fang", Kakashi had come up with a simple disguise. He found a black knit scarf and wore it wrapped around his neck and the lower half of his face. He'd briefly considered using a bandana for that purpose, but decided it would make him look like an idiotic Wild West bandit from lame western movies.

A flock of pidgey burst through the trees in front of him and Kakashi had to wait until they were gone to continue. It was an opportunity to capture a new monster, but he let it pass. He already had three beasts in his possession and felt no need to clutter his line-up with a creature he would certainly set aside later in favor of another creature.

His first monster was, of course, Pakkun, which he had befriended mere months before his fifth birthday. Upon gaining his license, he'd selected a totodile to be his official first monster (he had never confined Pakkun to a pokéball before then so the snubbull counted as his second pokémon). And then, shortly before leaving Shinobi Town behind to officially begin his quest, his aunt had passed him a package from his father, which contained a pokéball holding a cacnea and a note stating that he would "get a kick out of this pokémon". It was odd that his father would send him a grass-type pokémon, as the White Fang was known for his love of canine monsters, but Kakashi would've been a fool to set aside a grass monster that had immunity to _sandstorm_s.

Sliding his hand into one of his pockets, his fingertips brushed against a cool bit of metal. The cacnea and the note was not all his father had sent him in that package. His dad had sent him his gym's badge—the Fang Badge, a white fang emblazoned on a circle of black. Kakashi had no idea why; any Fang Badge handed out after the gym had closed was invalid, so it was useless to him.

_Why did I even bother to take it with me?_ he wondered as he and Pakkun continued to walk. _It's not even worth the metal it's made of. Even Fang Badges that are still legitimate are worthless now. No trainer boasts of defeating a defunct gym…certainly not Dad's._

Pakkun paused and sniffed at the air. Kakashi stopped and waited to see if the snubbull discovered anything interesting. The pink bulldog creature barked once and took off down a narrower side trail, Kakashi jogging after him.

They eventually came to a clearing in the forest where two older trainers were battling. One was a thug-ish brute with tattoos, a torn leather jacket, and a burly machoke. The other was a lean blond teen with spiky hair, clear blue eyes, a dark blue hooded jacket, and an elegant dragonair at his command.

Kakashi crouched at the edge of the clearing with Pakkun to watch.

"Alright, here we come you punk!" the thug growled. "Muscles, give that worm a _karate chop_!"

"Ryuu, _agility_ and then _wrap_," the blond teen calmly instructed.

The heavily-muscled machoke lunged forward to chop the dragon with a hard hand, but the serpentine beast easily twisted away from the blow and then coiled its body tightly around the fighter, pinning its arms.

"Muscles, bust out!" the thug cried, sounding a bit panicked. "Use _leer_!"

"_Slam_," the blond teen countered.

The machoke flashed the dragon a threatening look, but the dragonair didn't seem to be much effected by it as the serpent uncoiled enough of itself to bash its tail into the other monster.

The thug snarled. "Muscles, _focus energy_ and then use _revenge_!"

"Ryuu, back off for a minute," the blond instructed.

The dragonair released the machoke and slithered away, while the machoke focused its strength, making its large muscles bulge even more. When the machoke was ready, it charged forward to lash out with a vengeful blow—

"Ryuu, _dragon rush_!"

A blue aura of energy spread down from the dragonair's head and the horned serpent lunged forward, blasting into the machoke's gut and knocking it back over its trainer's head and into a tree trunk.

"Ah!" the thug yelped. "You, you—!"

"Do you withdraw?" the teen asked. "Or will you continue?"

"We still got tons of power!" the thug boasted. "Muscles, _submission_!"

The machoke lurched to its feet and stumbled towards the dragon, intent on wrangling its foe into a damaging fighting hold.

"Ryuu, _twister_."

The dragonair called out to the sky and a thin but intense whirlwind swirled into being. The shredding, dragon-powered wind sucked the machoke up before it could reach its target, spinning it around several times before dropping it and dissipating as quickly as it had come. The machoke staggered and collapsed, too dizzy and weak to keep its feet.

The thug gnashed his teeth. "Muscles, _vital throw_!"

"_Thunder wave._"

A blast of static from the dragonair's horn halted the machoke in its wobbly tracks and left it frozen in paralysis.

The thug hesitated and then recalled his machoke to its pokéball. "I'll get you next time, so watch your back!" he snarled and stalked off, dropping his bet (a hefty chunk of change from what Kakashi could see) on the dirt in disgust.

The blond-haired trainer sighed and walked over to collect his winnings…and then noticed his audience. "Oh. Hello. What are you doing hiding over there?"

"I wasn't hiding," Kakashi replied, standing up. "I was staying out of the way while I observed your battle."

"Ah." The older trainer looked a bit embarrassed. "Did you enjoy the match?"

"It was very interesting," Kakashi nodded, walking closer with Pakkun faithfully trotted after him. "How did you determine your strategy?"

The older trainer was surprised by the question, but answered. "It was clear that he only trained his machoke for strength and the expense of other things like speed and agility. I lean towards speed and agility in my training, and with an extra boost of _agility_ it wasn't hard for Ryuu to dodge the machoke's lumbering moves. Then it was just a matter of making sure that none of the machoke's attacks hit because, while it was slow, its attack abilities were powerful and if it had landed a few strikes we would've been in some trouble."

Kakashi quickly absorbed this information. Learning was important, and he was very good at it. The faster he raised his skill level, the sooner he would achieve his goals.

"My name is Minato Namikaze," the teen said. "And who might you be?"

"Kakashi," was his simple answer. He wasn't about to spread around his infamous surname. There was no telling who was familiar with his father, and how they might react. "This is Pakkun," he added, pointing down to his snubbull.

"Hello," the older trainer grinned and waved to the snubbull. "This is Ryuu," he said, gesturing to his dragonair, which had slithered closer out of curiosity. "But I'm sure you've figured that out already."

Kakashi gave a slight bow to the dragon. Dragons were powerful monsters and deserved great respect. And a trainer who could raise and control a dragon deserved equal respect.

The thug had been a fool to challenge Minato Namikaze.

"How long have you been traveling?" Namikaze-sempai asked curiously.

"A few weeks," Kakashi replied.

"And…you're traveling by yourself?" Namikaze-sempai blinked. "Fresh trainers usually travel in groups for the first few weeks, if not months."

"There was no one I wished to travel with."

There had been two that had wanted to travel with him. A girl named Rin had selected the chikorita offered by the professor, and an Uchiha boy named Obito had taken the cyndaquil, and both had wanted to follow him. The fire-water-grass trios chosen to be starter pokémon were seen as lucky (they had always been seen as lucky long before starting pokémon options were standardized), and the three trainers who chose those monsters would travel together to have an auspicious journey.

Kakashi didn't care for the silly superstition. And he had no interest in traveling with trainers who were of his level or lower. If he had to travel with others, he desired higher-leveled trainers from whose example he could learn more quickly.

"…Could I travel with you for a while, Sempai?"

Namikaze-sempai was startled by the request. "What? Why?"

"You are older and more experienced than I, and I can learn a lot from you," Kakashi said.

Namikaze-sempai bashfully rubbed at the back of his head. "You…really want to?"

Kakashi nodded firmly. "Yes."

"Well…alright then," Namikaze-sempai shrugged and recalled his dragon. "This way, I guess…"

Kakashi and Pakkun obediently followed the older trainer's lead.

This was not what he had planned on, but it wasn't a bad thing. It might take longer to make his gym challenges, but it would be worth it. Learning from a trainer like Namikaze-sempai would make up for all of that.

_This is the first big step…_

* * *

Kakashi adjusted the straps of his bag as he and Pakkun trailed after Namikaze-sempai. Apparently there had been a small town nearby and his sempai had been staying there with a friend. Now that Kakashi was traveling with Namikaze-sempai, it was time to meet who else he would be journeying with.

"Ah," Namikaze-sempai smiled, "here we are!"

"Here" was a small noodle restaurant. It was late in the afternoon so there were few patrons at the cheap eating establishment. His sempai headed straight for one of them.

It was a girl, though it took Kakashi a moment to determine that. She wore her red hair barely shoulder-length, styled only with a barrette to keep her hair from her eyes. Her clothes were worn and loose—cargo pants, a T-shirt, a dark gray coat, and fingerless gloves. She was devouring a bowl of some kind of ramen at the counter, and an eevee was crouched under her stool.

"Hey, Kushina," Namikaze-sempai greeted cheerfully.

The red-head paused in her eating to frown at him. "Where have you been?"

"That biker guy wanted a match with me and wouldn't take 'no' or 'maybe later' for an answer," the blond teen shrugged.

"And you didn't come get me?" she demanded. "I wanted to watch!"

"Sorry." He brought her attention to Kakashi. "This is Kakashi. He wants to travel with us for a while."

She blinked and glanced down at the younger boy and knitted her brows in confusion. "Are you cold?"

"No," Kakashi answered.

"Then how come you have that scarf around your face?"

"I feel like wearing one," he replied evasively.

She raised an eyebrow. "What? Are you ugly under there? A funny scar, birthmark?" She reached for his scarf to pull it off. "Lemme see."

Kakashi immediately moved away and gripped the ends of his scarf. "No."

This did nothing to discourage her. "Aw, c'mon, lemme see! I promise I won't laugh."

"No!" Kakashi insisted, glaring at the strange girl.

"Leave him alone, Kushina," Namikaze-sempai sighed. "If he doesn't want you to see, then leave him alone. He's new at this, and probably a bit shy."

"A newbie," she said, wrinkling her nose. "We have to escort a newbie to gyms?"

"You don't have to go out of your way for me," Kakashi told her, still holding on to his scarf. "I merely wish to follow and observe."

She gave him a studying look. "An uptight bookworm? Oh, this is going to be _fun_. …Not."

"Oh be nice, Kushina," Namikaze-sempai chided. "I'm sure it'll be fine. And won't it be fun to have someone else to talk to besides me?"

"Whatever," she muttered, rolling her eyes. She slurped down the last bits of her soup and slapped down the money for her food. "I'm going to the ladies' room, and then we can go."

As she disappeared, Namikaze-sempai picked up her eevee and patiently waited for her to return.

Kakashi tried to avoid being rude, but he had to ask: "Why do you travel with her?"

It made no sense to him. Why would such calm and intelligent trainer willingly travel with such an eccentric and boisterous girl? What was he missing?

"Because she's my friend," Namikaze-sempai answered with a smile. "With her around, there's always some kind of adventure nearby. I'd be alone without her."

Kakashi looked up at his sempai, and wondered:

_Is insanity contagious?_


End file.
